Switchfoot (w Jon Foreman) - Episode 1014

(This transcript was provided by tiny baby robots, so please excuse any errors they may have made.)

[00:00:00] Turn out the radio and sing all along. It's time for another great song. This is the Great Song Podcast. Holiday seasons. Greetings and welcome once again to the Great Song Podcast. I'm Rob Alley. I am J.P. Moser. And we're here to celebrate the greatest songs in modern music history. We're gonna tell you what makes 'em great, why we think they're awesome, and why you should too J.P, how you doing today?

Man? Man, I am doing fan. Fantastic. So over the past 10 seasons, at least one episode, each season is meant for mine and Rob's youth group years. We got Dan Haseltine of Jars of Clay, Lee Nash of Six pence none the Richer Kevin Max in DC Talk. Come on. But this week we are celebrating when we have been just graduating high school and heading off to college and some of our transitional youth group phase years with absolutely the biggest band of that era was Definit.

Switchfoot. Yes. So I normally say Rob tell about who we're talking about, but I, I spoiled the punchline there. But [00:01:00] today I was I was having breakfast and somebody, I was telling 'em who we were gonna be hanging out with and I was like, We're hanging out with Jon Foreman of Switchfoot. And they were like, You Lucky Duck.

And I was like, Isn't it lucky dog? Well, yeah, but Duck runs better. Does duck? Is it? I've heard Which animal is luckier? Here's the, Well, I guess it all depends. If you're a dog that's chasing a car and you get hit and live, you're a lucky dog. Right? Okay. And there's a, like, I mean, there's a guitar brand Lucky Dog.

I, That's definitely a phrase. It's dog, right? You lucky dog. But then a lucky duck might be, you know, escaped from a hunter or a, you know what I mean? Like, so I think it could go either way. Either way. We are super lucky and fortunate. Anyway, We're one of them to get to hang out with Jon today. So Rob play a little bit.

Tell him kind of what we're talking about today, Right. And we'll jump to. We're gonna talk about kind of all things Switchfoot, but we've got a particularly fun focus today because we get to bring your first look at the brand new Christmas album by Switchfoot. So let's kick things off first today with the single California Christmas from, This is our [00:02:00] Christmas album by Switchfoot.

I need a blanket. This song actually is my warm blanket.

Welcome to my Christmas is. Drinking lights on all the fake foam trees,

that foams is

bathing suits in.

Welcome to my California Christmas. This guy's, The sun is warm. [00:03:00] Sun is the Santa Claus. Makes the dime stuck. Traffic ons on

Grab Christmas

to

set you free wishing.

So that was Switchfoot? Yeah. And when we started the episode it was like sunny and warm, but somehow when that started playing, it started snowing. Yeah. Was the weirdest thing in California. Weird. We don't, So we're in, you know, middle Tennessee, East Tennessee. And [00:04:00] so we, it's funny because this album literally made me think stuff I've never thought about before about Christmas, like on the West Coast, Uhhuh, like, just, it's a whole different experience.

It is. If you're in Southern California Yeah. You, it's like fake snow at the mall is what you have. Absolutely. We get maybe one good snow a year around here, you know, and it's like, it's what you think? It's cold uhhuh. It's not, it's not brutal, you know, But it's like, it's, it's. It's cold and it's what you expect.

You get a little snow, you do a fire, you do whatever. Like who, Nobody's got fireplaces and, you know. Yeah. My wife grew up in Southern California. She's from Mexico, but grew up spent a lot of her formative years in Southern California, and the first time she saw snow was in her twenties. Yeah. So, like, she grew, you know, they just don't have it over there.

Yeah. And to kind of go a little bit behind the, behind the curtain, we're gonna pull back the curtain. Normally the way we do these is we interview the artists and then we record the episode after. Yeah. But the way the scheduling is lining up, we're actually recording this episode before hanging out with [00:05:00] Jon.

Yeah. So this'll be a little bit different. So we just wanted to let y'all know what kind of we're doing with this. That's right. So, if the interview kind of like goes off the rails or feels incongruent with what we've talked about in the episode, we can't really help it. We'll do our best to like, edit things to make it sound like it all fits.

But like, you know, we're talking to Jon tomorrow as we record this and we are geeking out about it. This what? Oh man. We're so, so excited because it's like you said, from the like, V It's from the, like very late nineties. You know, I'm not exactly sure when like Legend of Chin came out, but I wanna say it was like 97, maybe 96, 97, something like that.

You know, that's when the, you know, all that like, earliest Switchfoot, it was sort of like it was kind of like a cool, it wasn't a secret, but it was like a cool thing that you knew about. Yeah. You know what I mean? And then 2003 comes and Switchfoot owns the universe. Yeah. All of a sudden, you know, it was like, holy cow.

So it was like when Switchfoot blew up and now they've just become this like, you know, mainstream rock [00:06:00]juggernaut. Those of us who had like, kind of been with him from the beginning, we were like, we had something to be proud of. It was like, Bro, Switchfoot, right? And you're like, Yeah. And you're like, you're like, Yeah, what you know about you know, what you know about new way to be human.

Like Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, whatever. So it's, it's been so fun and I, but you know about Oh, Dechen. That's right. So it's made me, it's made me happy to be able to like, follow them over the years. Yeah. And just see that they're doing well. You know, because like at, at first it was like, Switchfoot was this cool thing.

That you and, and some of your cool friends knew about or you know, in our case, not cool friends, just friends , but like Yeah. You know, it was like, dude, Switchfoot. Cool. Right? Yeah, absolutely. And then all of a sudden everybody's like, Dude, Switchfoot's cool. You know, so that's great. And so to be talking with Jon is gonna be amazing.

And for our listeners that are like, Maybe some that if the three people on the planet that aren't as familiar with who Switchfootball, what would I be most familiar with? Rob play A Little Meant to Live. So this is probably their biggest hit from that era that Rob was just speaking of[00:07:00]

confide guitars. just pass

man's bed for more than arguments and fail the terms.

Lost ourselves.

We

[00:08:00] lost

now. There we go. There's a little Meant to Live by Switchfoot, one of several songs that kind of took over the universe in the early two thousands. And we're gonna kind of scatter. All of our Switchfoot love over, across, you know, two plus decades. Yeah. It's gonna be buckshot version of, of Switchfoot.

We normally, for those of y'all that this may be your first time listening to us, we either focus on one particular song or one particular Yeah. Thing about, you know, the, the artist we're covering. Yeah. But in this case, it's just two monster and we wanna talk on the Christmas project, but we would be remiss if we left out all the things that we love about Switchfoot.

Yes. So let's do this first. Maybe let's do a little talk on the Christmas album first, and then we'll kind of cover some more general Switchfoot stuff. Because this, Here's the thing that I really appreciated about this Christmas album. It, by the way, it's called, This is our Christmas album. It's, it's very very clever name and it's.

[00:09:00] In following with the, their last full album release which came out I think in 2021 in Teang in which all the song titles were non capitalized. Like, no, you know what I mean? Very ts Elliott of them to not capitalize any of this. So this is, this is our Christmas album, and Christmas is the only word that's capitalized.

It's all no caps, very plain, no punctuation, no parentheses. This is our Christmas album. But one of the things that I have appreciated about it in listening through it is that it's not just a a Hey, let's do a Christmas album because we should, or it'll, it'll make us some money every year. You know what I mean?

It's like a, they put some thought into this Christmas album, is what I'm saying. It's got 10 tracks, five are originals and five are classics. You know, what you'd call classics, Christmas songs that you might expect to hear, but then the, the first five are just like, Hey, these are Switchfoot songs. And they happen to be revolving around Christmas, You know what I mean?

And so you get everything from the really fun [00:10:00] stuff like California Christmas, where there's, I gotta find the line where the Bg vs are just singing in the most in the most like Beach Boys way. Just singing the word avocados. I gotta find the, Hang on avocado graffiti.

Come on. That's just, It's adorable is what it is. Yeah. I mean, Jon Foreman has this voice. I don't really have a good descriptor for it, but it's unique among rock voices. It's like a, it's kind of rye. It's almost like he knows more than he's letting. You know, it's kind, He, he just has this like, I don't know.

I really am at a loss to kind of describe his voice, but it evokes a feeling in me. Yeah. Every time I listen to it, it makes me comfortable. Yeah. It makes me feel at ease and it makes me feel like this guy knows what he's talking about and has more in his reserves, Uhhuh, you know what I mean? Like, So anyway, I just love to hear him, to hear him sing any thought makes it feel like it [00:11:00] is true.

Yes, that's good. I get that completely. So you get everything from, from this fun, you know, California, Christmas to more serious stuff, like looking for Christmas. This is the second track. That's kind of like dealing with the reality that like, Christmas is not everybody's favorite time of year.

Christmas is not great for everyone. People are struggling. You know, the, the world is in turmoil still, you know, and always there's man near the freeway on now the sign says he's looking for change lives. We as strangers make the whole feel. I give him a couple green pieces of paper, ex President's faces, and, and he asked

Feu, [00:12:00] Disturbingly, and Sincere, Oh, I'm for Christmas. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. It's like, it's very thoughtful. That's a real song that just happened. Yeah. You know what I mean? That's not like a, you know, we all, we all know that there are cheap Christmas albums out there. Absolutely right. And some Christmas albums.

Nothing if little more than a cash grab Uhhuh. Right. It's a thing everybody knows if you put out a Christmas album and it gets kind of airplay every year, that's revenue and blah, blah, blah. But what I appreciate about this album is they put work into it. Yeah. It's, it's a real Christmas album. These are real songs.

Yeah. And then you get, you know, more fun in there. Scrappy little Christmas tree is like, you know, you immediately get that like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree vibe. You know, and let's, you know, it's, and it becomes kind of a, a metaphor, you know, whatever. Midlife Christmas is more, you know, thoughtful you know, is You know, Christmas isn't always the the Norman Rockwell painting that I had [00:13:00] growing up, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And this is me at, you know, kind of like my halfway point, you know, thinking about Christmas a different way, that kind of stuff. And then you've got New Year's Day, which kind of ends the original set with something more hopeful. Like there's, there's something fresh on the horizon. You know what I mean?

Christmas is over and we're looking toward, all right, what's next? You know? But it's just so full of hope, which is I think a, one of the markers of Switchfoot, right? Is like, absolutely. They tell me the best in life is free and not feel bad. So guess it means that the best is mine, but it doesn't seem so while I'm out here confessing things all last year got the best of me and I'm not sure that a man for another goal, it's who hasn't felt that?

Is, It's on great melody. You could, you could, And [00:14:00] you knew that's where the melody was going. Yeah. Just because you've listened to Switchfoot, Right?

That's my favorite song on the project s New's.

That's an anthem right there, dude.

It's,

it's New Years Day. It's just so very Switchfoot. It's like there's a Switchfoot album that landed in Christmas. Yeah. You know what I mean? And it got covered in Christmas. Yeah. And then, and then you get, I heard the bells Christmas day. You get Christmas time is here, which we love, you know. Great to hear.

I'm, I'm down to hear anybody cover Christmas time is here. Silent Night, the Christmas song. Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem. So you can close out the, Did I say Bethlehem like a true Southerner? You definitely went Tennessee there. Wow. All [00:15:00] the San Diego folk are like me is Bethlehem. Excuse me, Beth. Oh, that's better.

Bethlehem. Yeah, so, you know, it closes out with like the classics that you kind of expect and you, you know But anyway, really enjoyable Christmas album. Go get it now. It is called, This is our Christmas album. And you can get, and if you go to their website too, they have a bunch of cool different packages if you wanna really support them and buy directly from them, not only will they make more money than if you stream it, or, or even if you purchase it from like iTunes or something like that, but you can give them more money directly and get cool stuff like vinyls and merch and, you know, stuff like that.

Now let's go back and talk about some more general, our, our general Switchfoot love. And we can kind of catch up with, you know, Switchfoot through the years all the way, come back around to the Christmas album. And we will do our best to not make this a King's Ex episode. . That's right. Be all that hung out with us on our four year anniversary.

Yeah, we hug out with another one of our favorites, Doug Pennick. And we went deep on Kings Went so deep, we're not gonna go quite [00:16:00] that far. . But let's do kind of start at the beginning. This is, so from the 1997 debut, The Legend of Chin. Let's do maybe you. Sounds good. It'ss always something in the way.

There's always something, but it's on me. It's you. It's you. So you can hear already this is their first album and you can already hear it. Like they kind of came out fully formed, you know, like they're, that already feels like one of those kind of intimate feeling, Jon Foreman, you know what I mean?

Like wisdom songs. Yeah. And so even from the very beginning, here's a little Oda chin as you mentioned earlier. Are we everybody ready? Get psyched, man. Get psyched, man.[00:17:00]

They're just having fun. Absolutely. They're always having fun. Absolut, tell what's wrong, Tell me what's right. Your think about somebody else for how's girls than more than this. So what's your order? Action. There you go. It, that album might not be as big sonically as some of their later stuff, but you hear, you, you hear their, you can see what's about to come.

Yeah. You, yeah. You definitely hear. And so then from you got the title track, A New Way to Be Human. Yeah. That's the one we got. So, New Way To Be Human was the next album. And honestly, of all their albums, this is probably the one that I've worn out the most. It's, I used to watch this video all the time.

Oh yeah. I've seen, Yes. And this is where I go if they were. If Legend of Chin was 95% Switchfoot, new way to be human is a hundred percent Switchfoot and they never looked back. [00:18:00] Oh, that's good. So here's the opening. This has all the, all the attitude I expect from Switchfoot.

Got a great misheard lyric coming here. Hey,

so he says, Hey kids. Hey. Forever. I thought it was the heck is the heck is this could be the one

who's

got

our's way. That's be [00:19:00] to be human.

So there's that. Maybe my favorite, I think my favorite Switchfoot song is company car, which is track four on a new way to be human. We played just a little bit of it and I'm hoping to ask Jon a couple questions about company Car. This breezy little shuffle

Mike's right When

under the, I'm gonna have to, I'm gonna stop my urges or we're gonna play a hundred thousand songs. I'm gonna have to taper that a little bit. But then on that, on that album, you also had to only hope, which was big and Walk to Remember kickstarted. That Walk to Remember is kind of a pivotal moment I think for Switchfoot musically.

So if you remember Walk To Remember, it had excuse me, Mandy Moore. [00:20:00] Who is now you know, she's in, This Is Us, and she was entangled and, you know, whatever. Originally though, she was music career. Like, she was like the kind of a teen pop, you know, she was number three behind Britney Spears and Christine Aguilar.

Right. Okay. It would've, Is that how you would put her? That's fair. I guess. Yeah, maybe so. But so yeah, she sang Only Hope in the movie Walk To Remember, which was I was that the first like Nicholas Sparks novel that kind of became a movie and like, maybe it was like invented a new genre of movie where it's just, Oh, turns out everything's just freaking sad.

Yeah, exactly. That's the kind of the Nicholas Sparks vibe. . And so like she was in it. You guys wanna have a good time tonight? Don't watch this. Yeah. But. Yeah, so that was a big thing because there were a couple of their songs on that soundtrack and she sang that one like in the movie. And so, you know, it was a big deal and opened up and so then people started who is, what is that song, you know?

And then after Walk to Remember is the beautiful letdown. But what I wanna skip before we go forward, Let's go back to two [00:21:00] thousands learning to breathe, which is the first time that you hear, dare you to move. It will not be the last time that you hear, dare you to move, but this is the Learning to Breathe album version.

Welcome to the

welcome to

Everyone's. Everyone's in, every, everybody is watching new.

Everybody. You

what happens? What happens?[00:22:00]

Ah, welcome to the fire.

Welcome to, So one of the things on this version that you get is, Kind of the drum fills on this second verse that aren't there on the on the next version that you're gonna [00:23:00] hears anyway. Huge song. Good.

Yeah. Yeah. That's what you get on. The little differences. I love it when there's you know, a couple different versions of a song out there because then you, you go, you inevitably ask yourself, what's my favorite version of it? Right? Yeah. But then you end up wishing for certain things on or not Wishing that sounds like negative.

If you're like, I could combine, if I could take the vocal line from that one and put it with this mix. Yeah. And this drum part, you're like, Could I get the multi-tracks for both? Yeah. And create my perfect mix of, of dare you to move. That would be awesome. Now, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, I think it's, I think it's changed for streaming purposes now, but I believe on the original version, I could be wrong.

I think on the original version it was called I Dare You to Move. I have it upstairs. I can go check. I mean, feel. Okay. So I went up to verify, [00:24:00] and this is an accidental flex, as I forgot about this, I went up to verify and I had learning to breathe well before it came out. Oh. Cause I worked at, so if you wanna know original, Okay.

This is before it even hit the streets. This is pre advanced pre-release street date, 9 26 2000. Okay. So this is, and it was Rob is correct track one song listing. I dare you to move. I dare you to move. Look at that. So it got changed on the beautiful letdown and then I guess subsequent, you know, streaming and this is pretty cool little thing I show you.

Yeah. That's dope to have, Dude. That's very cool. I forgot I had that and I grabbed all my other You went him grabbed the whole collection. I got all, Why don't you talk about it? I believe I see an autograph too. I have native, I have native tongue autographed by all of them. Yeah. I've got, I mean, Oh, gravity.

Hello? Hurricane. Yeah. Where the light shines through. Nothing is sound. Beautiful. Let. I'm all here just, and that's, and I have legend of chin and a new way to be human upstairs in a binder. I just didn't bring it down cuz they're binders. Remember? Oh man, that's where I pulled this from. Binders. Okay. I pulled this from my CD booklet.

[00:25:00] That's great. And so then Learning to Breathe was their, their last of that sort of first era of Switchfoot, where it was Charlie Peacock and it was on the what was the, was it Sparrow? Sparrow Records? Might have been, And, well, here I can look and tell you, but Charlie Peacock actually wrote, Did you see that?

He even wrote a book called Only Hope, I Believe, and Jon actually wrote the forward on it. So the foreman Forward as it were. Oh, there you go. The old forward Sparrow. Yeah, Sparrow. So that was like the, the, you know, the Christian label. And you know, I've heard Jon mention that like in in them ending up, what happened was they signed with.

Charlie's label, I think I, I could be wrong on that, but they, they originally signed with, the label was called Rethink, I think it was what it was. And that got bought by Sparrow. So the idea for them originally was not to be like, Let's hit the Christian market. Mm-hmm. . But when Sparrow bought that company, when Sparrow bought that label, [00:26:00] then they were like, Well, here we go.

Yeah, we're gonna be in the Christian market. And so that wasn't really their intention. And I've, I've seen that Jon said basically, you know, they felt like kind of half of who they were wasn't available at that point, you know, because it wasn't their like, , they're one of those bands, you know, you get the bands that are like, they are Christian, but they're afraid to say it for marketability purposes.

That's never been Switchfoot. You know, they're kind of unapologetically Christian and, you know Tim and Jon's dad is like a pastor and, you know and, and they've never tried to hide anything about that. Yeah. But they write in such a way that their songs have multiple layers for whoever's listening.

And so like, it, they have stuff that, like if you are just Joe Schmo, who doesn't, who's never stepped into church in his life, hasn't read the Bible, whatever, anything like that has no connection with, you know, religion of any kind. You can hear their songs and they'll get you. Yeah. Right. And. If you are of, you know, if you [00:27:00] are of the faith and you listen to it, it'll get you, and it'll get you a different way.

It'll get you in a different layer. You know what I mean? But it's perfectly fine for everybody and not, not everybody can write like that. Like Switchfoot is pretty unique in being able to reach into both of those things equally well, and it doesn't feel like it's an effort for them to do that. Some people you can feel like, hey, it sounds like he's trying to write a love song to God.

Yes. Like some people it feels that way. Yes. But with him, it feels like he's writing a good song. Right. Like you said, that could be layered. So like certain bands, you know, they come out, it's like you said, it's, we used to call him God as my girlfriend songs. There was so many of them that it was, it was like a, you know, Yes, this is a love song, but wink, wink, it's really about Jesus.

You know what I mean? And that's never been Switchfoot's thing. They're like, We're not gonna hide anything about who we are, but it's also gonna be accessible to everyone. That's good. You know, no matter what they're, they're, they're not trying to exclude anybody or include anybody. It's just, we write these songs and I hope you like 'em.

And here, you know, let's go surf. , you know, like, okay, so after learning to breathe, then [00:28:00] comes, Oh man, I'm just looking down this track list, The Economy of mercy. Just so good. Let's go. Living is simple. Then you have the, the inclusion in in the Mandy Moore movie who's, what is it Shane West? Was he the guy in that?

I have never, It Shane. Shane something. And I have just never been able to stand that guy just because of his face. His face has always bothered me. I had to Taylor Swift's face, you know, like Shane West. Yeah. Okay. And so I've, I just, whatever. But anyway, good for them. They got, so they got sort of wider mainstream exposure from that.

And then they signed with Columbia Records and put out this earth shattering album, The Beautiful Letdown, their first major label distribution album, and it freaking catches the world on fire. We already played you something meant to live. And I didn't know that Jack Joseph Pigg did some of the tracks on here.

Yeah. And yeah, look at the, the who's who of, of mixing and engineering and all that stuff. Like PU is on there. What's his name? Do on it. Jon Fields. Oh my gosh. Tom Lord. Algae. Yeah. Lord [00:29:00] Algae. Yeah. Like you know Chris and Tom Lord Al. Yes. Both of the Lord algaes. Right? Like huge mixers.

I mean, and you can hear it. I mean, you can hear it. The mix is incredible. Like sonically, This is one. This is like, I had people who, at that point I knew some people who were like already working kind of in the music industry and blah, blah, blah, blah, and they were like, Have you heard the new Switchfoot album?

Yeah. They're like, it's, I mean, it sounds good. Yeah. You know and it did, it did kind of production wise go up to the next level for them. Not that anything they were playing or doing was so much different. But sonically it was just spot on. I mean, so I have the pre-release of this one as well that I had and my court rep at the time came and he gave it to me.

He's like, he's like you, he said this a lot, but he would always try to get us to, Cause I worked at a Christian bookstore, get us to carry a lot of a project Uhhuh and he's like, they're saying this is gonna be the biggest thing to come out. Yeah. They being everybody. Yeah. And I'm like, All right. You know, I've heard that before and I took it home and listened and I was like, This guy ain't lying.

Yeah. Like this is gonna be monster. [00:30:00] It was literally, I. So huge, and we talked about this before, like, you know, the the last era, the last gasp of the CD era was around this time right before now. I mean, CD's still sold for a while, but they were soon to be replaced as the number one way that people got their music.

iTunes was starting to take over and of course Napster and all that had already happened. So it's like streaming and downloading and all that stuff was, was happening. But this CD was one of those last bastions of everybody had this physical album. Everybody had these liner notes, you know, and that, those are albums became especially few and far between, around this time.

But this is one of the last ones that I think about. Yep. As the last great, like, just albums that Yeah, of course I've got that album. Why would you, you know, why would you give this to me for Christmas? You know, I have it, you know, so that's good. I mean, stinking, everything about [00:31:00] this album is, is awesome.

This is Your life would be you know, another of the big hits off this one, Geez.

A little synth action going before, which was new to them. Newer, they've always had this sort of experimental, you know, a little bit. They were always ahead of the curve. I'll say that on production. Yeah.

On the forehead.

Mr. Day is a promise that you've broken.

Don't close your, don't close your eyes. This is your life

[00:32:00] is

the

Yeah. And I've always loved when you get toward the end of the song and he's doing adlibs up to like, he's just going, Dude, Yeah. That's good man. So good. So much Great, great stuff on the album, like. There are no misses on this album whatsoever. There's not one. You could pick one and I would be like, Oh yeah.

And sing it. Yeah, exactly. Yes. I think on fires my favorite and the slow balance that one gets me every time. Yeah. Just a little bit. Just feel it. Just feel it. . Just bring your al to the altar this morning.

Yeah. I mean, such an emotional, I'll tell you when song you need. Go. I'll, You need, Let's hit that, that chorus. This chorus aches.[00:33:00]

Yeah, dude, come on. So like to go back to the first track that you played, which was you, off of Legend of Chin, I felt like. That's where they wanted to be there. Yeah. And they landed there here. Good call. And so that's, that's a, I'm glad we played you at the beginning, cuz that one brings it off home for me.

And then you've still got, you know, they're always having, there's always some fun, like Switchfoot is always thoughtful, always purposeful and always fun. Mm-hmm. right? And so on that one, one of, on that album, one of the perfect examples is Gone. Yeah. I just, it's such a funny song and we won't play it, but like, just listen to Gone, it's like Pacino's Cat, Like Pacino's, is it Cat?

Right? I thought it's cash. Cash would make more sense. I've said CAT forever. Cheetos caps like what? I was like, is there head of, I gotta look that up right now that [00:34:00] it's gonna be cash. Looking into the liner notes. It's definitely gonna be cash. Why if I say cat, hang on. What if it's neither cash? Yeah.

Pacino's Cash. There we go. Nothing. Laughs Cat. I was like, Oh, poor cat . I just pictured him in Scarface like, Like giving the business, Where's my freaking cash? . Okay, Cash. There we go. It's like that movie, right? Wasn't, wasn't, Isn't there a movie that basically is that now with Bob Odenkirk. Steve.

Steve, Steve Odenkirk. Bob O Bob Odenkirk, Yeah. Friend that Paul saw. Guy where he was like, There's two movies like this because one, he's, he's the guy that's like, Give me the bracelet or something. Right. The kid, Hello Kitty bracelet. He goes off, he goes like John Wick. Okay. Trying to find some his daughter's kid, Hello Kitty bracelet or something.

And then there's a, what's the movie, Keanu with Key and Peele, where they go to literally rescue a cat and they're like, I don't know. Oh man, it's such a funny movie. It's Key and Peele. And they're like going, like, they're going like gangs are trying to get this [00:35:00] cat back. But they're also in the car like getting hyped up listening to George Michael.

Okay. It's, it's so random. What other music podcast are you gonna hear this? No kidding. Yeah. Pacino's Fake cat. That wasn't even real. Okay. Then following the beautiful let down, So basically once the Beautiful, Let. Comes and, and explodes. They're kind of free to write their own ticket. You know, and they, and they, they follow up.

You know, nothing of sound is next. You get, oh gosh, what stars maybe. Yeah. No, get the star. It's probably not that key, but that,

I mean, bro, that's just good

Love a good lydian lick.

Put that sharp 11 in there.[00:36:00]

Heck yeah. Heck yeah. Shadow proves the sunshine. Ugh. Happy is a yuppy word. I like the blues on there. The blues. Yeah. Dang. Just, I, I think mostly our point here is they just kept killing it forever. Like once they started crushing, they just have never stopped crushing. Yeah. I did meant to give just a few facts on, I know we usually kind of run down some stats and stuff and the Beautiful Letdown is probably the album to have done that with.

Let me go back for just a second to give you kind of an idea of, of what it did. It was Double Platinum. That means two plus two plus million albums in the US alone. Then they had a live DVD that was called Live in San Diego that also went platinum. Like that was a whole other thing of like, you can put out a CD and sell it for 10 bucks and it can go platinum.

Then you can put out a DVD and sell it for 2098. Two. Yeah. And, and for Indigo Platinum also, like that's nice. That's not bad. You know, they were nominated. [00:37:00] Six, 2005 Dove Awards across five categories. The Artist of the Year, which they won Group of the Year, Song of the Year twice. They had two songs in the Song of the Year, Dairy to Move and Meant to Live.

They were nominated for Rock Contemporary record, recorded Song of the Year, which they won for dairy to move. And they won nominated for video, both short and long form. So like huge year for them. And Beautiful Letdown is probably their, their most awarded now. They won a 2011 Grammy for an album that's coming later.

Hello? Hurricane. It won in kind of a weird category. Best Rock or Rap Gospel album. They were like rock or rap, Let's just throw 'em together. Yeah. Like you know, there's not, they're pretty much the same. The Rock and the Wrap, they're pretty much, Grits and switchfoot are the same. Yeah. . Yeah. But so.

What we're saying is Switchfoot is bad bone. Dude, they had a song on there called Your Love is a song that I love on Hello Hurricane. Yeah, So good. Let's play it. Let's play Snoop. We're just playing snips, you know, we're just talking about how much we love Switchfoot, That's all. Here's a little bit of your love as a song.[00:38:00]

You can the chorus, right? Okay. Tom's sake.

Ooh me.

Melody underneath me.

Yeah. And then that album also produced one of their bigger hits actually which is the sound. Parentheses, John M. Perkins Blues is charted Well for them. This was probably their biggest hit since the beautiful let down album, which come on, that's just dirty[00:39:00]

it. This gives me good fight scene movie soundtrack vibes. Gearing up for a fight scene. Slow motion,

dude.

Yeah, man, it's so much good stuff. And so now that was, Hello Hurricane was their first album Post Columbia Records, so that was independent and did great. And then now they're just like, basically what happened is, I think Jon said you know, when we signed at Columbia, it was more about the people that were there.

And once those people were gone, there was really no reason for us to be there. And so they were like, Let's do this, you know, do this one independently. And from now on they've, they've, they've partnered at times with major labels for distribution, you know, and that kind of thing, but they've gone this line of like, we can kind of do it ourselves.

Mm-hmm. , you know [00:40:00] and again, they're producing most of their stuff themselves and you know, just freaking. Making it happen. Do we ever meet the band? We do. And I would like to do it on my favorite Switchfoot album, which is where the light shines through. Yes. That's my favorite. Okay, so let's meet the band from that, and then maybe we can play a clip or two from that one.

That's my favorite Switchfoot project. Okay. Right. Hey, let's meet the band. It's time to meet the band. Hey, let's meet the band. It's all the band.

All right. We're gonna meet the band that played on where the light shines through, because we always do a meet the band section and I get to do the meet the band section. So I'm gonna pick the Meet the band section off my favorite Switchfoot album. This will be 2016. This Will, The Light Shines for. And I actually have the set list from where I saw them in 2017.

I saw 'em in 16. And then in 17 I actually saw them with Life House and got this set list from the show there in Nashville, August the 16th, 2017. Killer set list. All right, here we go. But we're gonna meet the band now, Jon Foreman, lead vocals and guitar. I'm gonna save all [00:41:00] things Jon for when we hang out with him shortly.

So but that, that's gonna be a lot of fun when y'all, when we talk to him, hopefully we're saying that in advance, in faith on bass guitar background vocals. Jon's brother, Tim Foreman he's an actor in movies. He's been in a cabin in the woods fading West and unbroken the path to redemption. Him and his wife Andrew, have been married since 2001, which I'll give props there that they got married in 2001 and are still married through a rock and roll era.

You know, that's, that's pretty impressive to live through that at the hype of that. So, nice job. Tim, Chad Butler on drums and percussion. He was born in Amsterdam on a boat, literally. Okay. Born on a boat. Grew up in the uk, moved to San Diego California. He plays and tell me I'm pronouncing this right cause I've said it 132 times.

Piy symbols. Yes. There we go. Boom. He plays a Master's Medium Ride Master's, Dark Crash Ride, Masters, Dark Crash and Masters. Dark High Hats. So so he is predominantly feisty. He's a Piy guy. There you go. On [00:42:00] keyboards and a little bit of guitar. Jerome Fonts he was in the band Mortal. Do you remember them with Ja.

No, I don't think so. Their second album, Fathom is one of my favorites. Okay, so pick up Mortal Fathom. It's cool looking album. It's really good. The lead singer from them is a guy named Mark Solomon. He went on to to sing in Sak. I don't ified. It's kind of industrial metal. Yeah. So that, that went on to become in the band Folds Endura.

So another kind in that, in that era I was working in the industry. I was gonna say you were Knee love this because I was in it. Yeah, but that's those of y'all out there that know who Folds Endura is and Steve Sacker. Let's High Five right now. Yeah. on guitar. Drew Shirley, he was the guitar player for All Together.

Separate. Yeah. And I love their first album. It came out in 96. They had a worship album or two as well too. But I love their first album. Their first album was Killer. Good. They were originally called Praise House. There was. Like techno group with the same name. All two separate, 10 times better name [00:43:00] changed to Exactly.

They had a song called Paradigm. It's kind weird on a Switchfoot album to play Paradigm . But let's just play 20 or 30 seconds of paradigm. Yes. Just so that we can have some, some flashback. That album is so good. I'd love to talk to those guys sometime. True. Or I think his name was Dax or Dex, something like that.

Alexander. I can be making that up, but I think that

cheer.

Yeah. I used to wear that album. Love this album too. Cool. Cover. With his hair everywhere. My favorite track on that was Truth about God. Oh yeah. I tell you the truth about super bluesy had a cool like, time changing. Great stuff. Camouflage soul, camouflage soul into truth about God. That's what it was. It was a double.

That's right. Good call. So Drew Shirley on guitar there and man, and he was with them up until this year. So this year he backed, backed away, backed outta the band. And so [00:44:00] now they're continuing forward Drews and we'll see if they bring in another guitar player eventually, or if they just continue as a four piece.

And there was some good supporting backing vocalists and guest musicians on this album. They have a song called Looking for America, and they had Lecrae come on there, who's a big time rapper. So I guess Ra and Rock, right? There you go. Le and then I wonder if that was an offshoot of like the new metal era where they're like, you know what I mean?

You know what? Let's just, It's all, it's all the limp biscuit now anyways. Biscuit, puddle of mud. It's all the same. Let's just. Combine them. Yeah. The Robert Randolph plays Pedal steel. Really? The day that I found God. Yeah. So big time guitar player, so, Oh, he's wicked Now. Couple cool guests on that. So that's the meet the band section from my favorite Switchfoot album, which is where the light shines through.

I mean, any of those songs on there are money. So yeah, just pick it up and listen to the whole thing. You can't go wrong with Switchfoot. This is what we're saying. You're gonna, you're gonna leave a Switchfoot album feeling good. You're gonna leave it feeling challenged and you're gonna leave it feeling cared for, quite frankly.

You know, Uncle Jon, he's gonna take good [00:45:00] care of you. So then after where the light shines through, was the next one Native Tongue. I think so. I think it would've been, And I do have an autograph copy of that. And we skipped over. Gosh, we skipped over. Vice versa. We skipped over. Oh, gravity. Oh, gravity. We skipped over.

Geez. Yeah. Play. You know, And I'd like to hear dark horses a little bit, so let's go back and find it. I, I mean, it's just, I don't know. I'd be here all day. I know. We said we weren't gonna do this, and here we're

Hey Yout running up the We're darking away. It's down on, and now we've been down, but we've out We're the dark good man. That'ss. That's my favorite [00:46:00] heavy Switchfoot song. Yeah, I was just thinking about they have these like kind of two sides of the same coin where they'll satisfy that heavy thing. Yeah.

But then they'll also give you some like loops and like tenderness and you know, whatever. And if I was gonna pick one off of where the lifetime do since we played something, let's play Live it. Well because those, that chorus is my like it's life is short. Wanna live it. Well, yeah. I mean that says enough that you need to ride two and you get a really classic Jon Foreman.

Yeah. At the beginning. Like the way he says Yeah. Everybody has their own Ya, there it's, it's there's the Jon. Yeah. Sammy Hagar's got his on. Yeah. Yeah. It's great there. It's,

he just has this. Pronunciation. The way he forms all these words is so uniquely, [00:47:00] Jon.

Oh,

is I wanna, Well, for story to tell is Sure. Im wanna leave you. Well, you're the one I'm living for everybody. They're just so good. Absolutely. And they're doing it. And so the next thing then after that was, Or getting us up to kind of where we are now in the narrative is Native Tongue 2019, which we also won awards.

Like it's just, they've never, it's not that they haven't slowed down, but it's that they haven't eased up is better the word. Right. Like they've you know, they've taken some pauses here and there and I think there was a brief kind of formal hiatus for a little while. And Jon did some recordings of his, his own solo stuff and he did oh gosh.

What's the group? [00:48:00] Yeah. Fiction family with the guy from Nickel Creek. Sean. And the original, by the way, the original name for Fiction family was supposed to be the original Sean Jon. Yeah. . Right? Real Sean Jon The Real Oh, the real Sean Jon. That's. . So then, yeah, you've got Native Tongue and then that brings you up to 2020 ones in Teang.

Gosh, we Fading West. We didn't even mention, you mentioned the movie. Yeah. But the Fading West was like a combo album, documentary, you know, thing. And it's like a, kind of like a surf surf documentary, you know, with Switchfoot. They've just done so much. I mean, it really is, It's weird to think that Switchfoot's been going for 25 years.

Crazy because they still feel new Uhhuh in my brain. My brain. Like same in my brain. They're still young and cool. Yeah, And they are. And they are cool, but they're not as young. They're not as young, but they're still. As cool that there's Yes, exactly. They never got any less. Cool. So then 2021 in Teang comes out and then a deluxe edition, I think earlier this year.

And let's do a little bit of, I don't know, maybe fluorescent off that.[00:49:00]

It's a resolution right there. That's a world class resolution. Beating his wings against a dusty window

outside. I want him to sing the interview. Think he would. What does your favorite guest day should snack food? I had my wings. You the brightest star in the back.

Fluorescing

favorite, A little darker in tone here. I just told myself a joke.

Dude, so I, [00:50:00] I would love for, I was trying to think what would be the best answer to the gas station thing if he was gonna sing it. And I kind of like for him to go a bag of yas , please say a bag of yams and sing it like that. . That why, I dunno,

everybody on the count sing with.

Oh man. Oh, that was the random moment this episode needed. Let's play. Stop The genius. I'd be like, Okay, Stop the genius. Stop the genius. Stop the genius. It's time to stop the genius and take your part. I like your part. All right, we're gonna play Stop. The Genius. The biggest album from sweatsuit we talked about is probably the beautiful letdown.

So we're gonna do biggest letdowns. I'm raising my hand already. No, [00:51:00] no, no. Sports. We're gonna do sports. Biggest letdowns. Okay. Is this prior to the Braves 2021. 2022 postseason. I know. Okay. So I'm gonna tell a little bit of scenarios or what and give some questions to go with it. Right? I think you'll, I think you'll do okay.

Okay. I don't know if I'm trying to stump you on this or cheering for you. Okay. Probably trying to stump a little bit. I don't know. We'll see how this lands. All right. Biggest letdown number one. Chris Weber from Michigan. Yeah. Calls the timeout that they didn't have. Yes. Do you remember what team Michigan was playing?

Ooh. Oh, I'm just gonna get, let's say Duke. Was it Duke? Close? North Carolina. North Carolina. That's the other one that you would guess. Okay. Number two. The closest the Titans ever came to winning the Super Bowl. Oh, Kevin Dyson. Just for the end zone. Yeah. Do you remember which team beat Tennessee? It was the Rams.

It was the Rams jingle that bail. Give yourself some credit. Okay. Nicknamed, this is a fun one, baby Jordan. He was only in the league four years, kind of a flop. Do you remember his name? [00:52:00] Harold Minor. Harold Meer, Yeah. Came in and won the dunk competition. He did with like a 360 windmill or something. Yeah, he was awesome.

Everybody's like baby Jordan. Literally, I, that's who I, This is shameful to say, but when I was doing like seven foot dunk contest in my driveway, I would be Harold. You wanted to be her . Sorry. Our podcast is kind of the Harold Minor of the music podcast world. Here we go. Okay. So we're on the Jordan theme.

Michael Jordan's last basketball team. He played for, Okay, after the Bulls, he came out of retirement again. Do you remember who he retired with? Was it the Birmingham Barrens? Not baseball. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, the Washington Wizards. Washington Wizards. There you go. Boom. All right, so we've gotten three outta four.

Yeah. So you gotta get this one. Okay. Going back college basketball. Ooh, the toughie. U N L V 19 90, 91. The greatest, Possibly the greatest college basketball team ever. They were like 34 and oh, and then they lost in the tournament. They had Larry Jonson, Stacy Oman, Greg Anthony, Do you know who [00:53:00] beat them?

And go with initial gut? Wow. Uh, Okay. Say it, say it again now. So what year? U N L V 91 91 could, I mean, it's almost, you, almost, you're always safe guessing Duke, North Carolina and Kentucky. So I'm gonna go Duke. Duke. Let. I broke the bell. Broke the bell manually. Is there no bell in there? There's

Yes. Yes. Oh, wow. We're gonna need a new bell. We're gonna need a new bell. All right, well that timed out. Good cuz. Well let's, You know what? I'll give you one more bonus that we will manually just cuz this was a let down that I just learned about and made me laugh. So this is bonus extra credit. This is fun.

Play at home. So the year y2k, let's just talk about that as a letdown. Period. Look, fixed it. Hey. Alright. The year glitched. Yeah, so there was a glitch that caused a guy to have a video he rented be past due or overdue for a hundred years. Oh. And the cost of it was [00:54:00] $91,250. Holy cow. They fixed the glitch, Of course.

Sure. So the video was another let down the general's daughter, . Do you remember who starred in the General's dog? Have we talked about that movie? I don't know. Maybe the general's daughter? I think so, yes. So we casually mentioned it in something. What? No, I do not. No, because Okay. It was an episode. Well, it would've been, Here's a hint.

And the actor we have also talked about. In a rivalry episode. Okay. Bro, he was a focal point of a rivalry episode project that I like that you don. Okay. So that'll be Travolta. That'll be Travolta. There you go. General's Dog Travolta. So that was just bonus for, for anyway, but great job. You got your 80% Well done.

Thank you. Thank you. I did All right. I, And he broke the bell. And I broke the bell. Let's get a new one. It's, it's, it's, we're long overdue for a bell upgrade. Let's be honest. That one says, I think it's time for wine or something like this. [00:55:00] And we don't even drink wine. Yeah. I found the bell at the dollar store with all these multiple thousands of dollars we're getting from Patreon every month.

We can afford a better bell. Okay. Get one of those big, like big liberty bell looking things. Just, That's it. This could be our sponsorship. That's right. This, it's time for a sponsor. Let's get a be sponsor. Let's get Bell South. Or Liberty Mutual or who, you know, Taco Bell. Taco Bell. Come on. That's on brand.

Let's do it. All right. So let's do this. We're already an hour into this. Oh my goodness. An hour into this and we're still gonna hang out with Jon. So let's wrap it up. Let's expedite things here and we're gonna kick it to our interview with Jon Foreman. But let me just say this to recap, One Switchfoot is awesome.

Two Switchfoot has a new Christmas album. It's awesome. Go get it. Three Switchfoot loves you and I'll never let you down. four, Switchfoot loves to surf and Switchfoot is in fact a surfing term. If you didn't know that Switchfoot is a term about I did not know that. Switching your, switching the direction that you're facing as you're surfing.

Like it's a, [00:56:00] it's a foot move where you switch your feet and you, it's about facing the opposite direction. And and so, yeah turn, it's like turning around and you know, that kind of thing. There's metaphor there if you wanna find it. and they were originally called Chin up. Oh, that's my gonna be my last note on Switchfoot, which makes the legend chin and owed to Chin.

Kind of coming, coming into focus a little bit more. But I think that's, I think that's all I'm gonna, all I'm gonna give us on Switchfoot so that we don't belabor the interview anymore. We're gonna go talk to Jon Foreman of Switchfoot in just a second. But I need you to do one more thing. I need you to grab your phone, go to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook MySpace, and hit hit that follow button at Great Song Podcast.

And join our Facebook group. Face, What's it called? Great songs And the great people. I am Pride, great songs and the great people who love them greatly. I don't even have Facebook. I heard him say it. And if you wanna go the extra mile and become a producer of the show please, you can tell that we need great improvement.

[00:57:00] You can go to patreon.com/ Great, Song Podcast, that's P A T r.com/ Great Song Podcast. And when you support us at any level on Patreon, you'll get all the goodies that we can offer you. Bonus shows, extended episodes, ad free exclusive shows. Our whole second podcast, The Catch with Robin J.P is on there.

And so yeah, all those things are available when you go to patreon.com/ Great Song Podcast. But now let's get to the guest of the day. We're gonna go talk to Jon Foreman of Switchfoot and we'll be back to tuck you in at the end. This is the Great Song Podcast. Ladies and gentlemen, as promised, we are here with Jon Foreman of Switchfoot.

So cool to have you on with us today. Jon, thank you so much for joining us on the Great Song Podcast. Thank you for having me. Woo. We've already been talking baseball. Yeah. So hit him with the Padres thing out the gate, man. Such a good season for the Padres. A little disappointing at the end, but what are your overall feelings about the Padres season?

Oh, man, I, you know, I think to do such [00:58:00] incredible work without to and with all this stuff that they had to deal with, you know, Next year's gonna be our year. That's it. Gotta win the, Let's go. Yeah. That's it. Let's get in first. First, let's go straight to the Christmas album. Let's, let's, let's talk about, This is our Christmas album.

First of all, what made, what made right now the time for the, the Switchfoot Christmas album to happen? So, 2020 had a little bit of time home. Sure. As we all did, and I started, I don't know, you, you start to obsess over little things, right? You, you think, Oh, I'm, One of the things I wanted to do is I wanted to curate Christmas playlist.

And it turns out that there was, there wasn't an album that did what I wanted to for Christmas. So I thought, What, what would, what would that album look like? What do I wanna listen to? What's the Christmas album I wanna hear? And so this, this entire project kinda came from that. What does it be, the Christmas [00:59:00] record you want to see in the world?

Is that the Sure. The age old adage. . So that's what we did. We just said, Let's, let's make that album. That's, you know, one of the things that we, we talked about in our, in our just talking about the album and covering it, was that it is a it feels like this is j a a Switchfoot record. that is Christmas centric.

You know, it's you didn't do that thing that people have done before where it's like, Yeah, I'm gonna put out a schlocky Christmas album just so that either I can say I did, or because I know it will sell. And it'll kind of be, you know, every year I'll get some Christmas play. But it's like, you really put thought into this album.

And there's, you know, all the, all the hallmarks of what you expect from Switchfoot are evident in the original tunes, you know, that are the first half of this, of this Christmas album. And so that's something I've really appreciated is that it's not just the Norman Rockwell carving up the Turkey, you know, Christmas, but there's like, you're dealing with stuff even in the midst of this whole, you know, this whole thing.

And so I think [01:00:00] that's one of the great qualities about it, is that it's, it's very grounded. Hmm. Well, I'm very honored to hear that. I, we spent. I mean, as we always do with every record in inordinate amount of time, trying to pour ourselves into it. And I, I discovered from a songwriting perspective, Christmas is an incredible treasure trove of emotional depth to, to mine.

When you mine a Christmas topic, you're mining these words that have so much weight. They're pregnant with such, such meaning. And not all of it's good, you know? I mean, we've all had beautiful, wonderful experiences in our lives, hopefully, you know, during Christmas. And, but then there's, there's other things that we're wrestling with where you know, lost of, of loved ones.

People that aren't who we thought they'd be, aren't who they should have been for Christmas, you know, So, so every and every, it comes around once a year and brings all these emotions back to the service. So as a, as a songwriter, I was like [01:01:00] kind of blown away by It's kind of a songwriting dream, really, because you, you're, you just say three or four words and, and you just touched a lot of buttons for a lot of people That's true.

Good, bad, ugly. You know, that's, that's true. You know, of course the, the single kicks off the album California Christmas, and it's like, you know, beach loving fun, you know, bring a Christmas tree to the beach, you know, all that kind of stuff. Actually, I think my, one of my favorite moments on the whole record is just the background vocals on that song.

Singing, avocados, avocados, but like but then immediately you're into that second track looking for Christmas and you, and you go, Okay, we're gonna get into that like that happened. That was a quick turn. . Yeah. But I love it. That's, it's like you say, you know, there's not a lot of Christmas albums that are willing to kind of deal with that reality.

You know? It's a real Christmas, like it's real. Yeah. And so we like that. And Switchfoot's always been a real band and y'all, so we, we love to hear that come through on a Christmas project. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Well, I'm [01:02:00]honored the avocados you have that my brother to thank for that , he was like, No, we have to sing Just Avocados.

Avocados, . Brilliant. And then, yeah, the second track, I mean, I, I think for me, maybe I'm the only, I'm not the only person that wrestles with it, but, you know you're, it's a, it's a season that really kind of galvanizes the entire populace where you're looking at the homeless guy at the freeway on ramp with a different perspective.

You're thinking, oh, What does Christmas mean to him, You know? And how do we, what does it mean to say peace on earth and goodwill to men in the post-modern era? What does that look like? How do I bring that to someone who's, who's homeless? Houseless, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Well, we'll let's take a second and bring it up a little bit.

You went to uc, San Diego. Go Tritons. There you go. So there we go. Did you ever run into one of our favorite bass players who went there? Nathan East [01:03:00] or Billy Bean, or Benco Del Toro? Did you ever meet anybody run into anybody famous from other than yourself from uc, San Diego? So, my, the funny thing is so Nathan East, are you talking about the bass player?

Absolutely. Yeah. So my brother had Nathan East on his wall. , of course, as a kid. Yeah. I still remember it was a picture of Nathan East. There's a couple other bass players and the, the sign and. All caps was all bases covered. Got it. And, and I, I, the funny thing is, I even with GS d There you go. I gotta tell my brother, Hey, that's, that's our connection with Nathan East right there.

That's your way in . That's awesome. That's cool. Well then, there you go. I'm glad we could provide a little something to you, . Yeah. As, so you guys now have been around, I mean, I think first album was 96, 97. Legend of Chin. 97. [01:04:00] Yeah. Okay. So, you know, I mean, you're hitting, you're at that 25 year mark now as far as releasing music for that long as you begin to get older.

And trust me when I say I don't think San Diego older is the same as regular older . But, but as you kind of put some years behind you in this thing, how has your approach changed as it regards writing, touring band dynamics, even the industry at looking back 25 years later? What's, how is your approach different now than it was when you first started?

That's such a good question. I know , in some ways, everything has changed, you know, Cause I, the first album I wrote in my dorm room it was themes, you know, of college girls. Dorm room life. There's a song about a chemistry course I was taking . You know, and I, I think that as you grow up, as you get older, your understanding of the world changes.

We, on [01:05:00] that first album, we, we hit the road and found ourselves in, you know, Amsterdam and, and France and the uk and suddenly your world gets a lot bigger. Hopefully you're writing around about topics that feel a little bit bigger than your dorm room, you know? And so I think the, the goal still is, is for me, is I think it goes back to when I was in high school and music felt like the only way I could communicate about subjects that I had a hard time talking through.

It could be politics theology, god, girls, sex, whatever it is. I think Music afforded me the ability to be honest in a way that just pure conversation couldn't. And I, the irony is that's still what I do every time I pick up a guitar is I, I'm, I'm basically attempting to traverse a landscape that I can't [01:06:00] get across any other way.

You know? And it's beautiful that music allows you to do that in front of perfect strangers and find a commonality and feel comfortable, you know? So that's the thing that has not changed. That's great. I love that. The, one of the things that we, and I kind of mentioned this already, but that we've always loved about Switchfoot, is that your, your writing is so thoughtful, and I mean both in that it is caring and kind of, you know gentle in its approach but also it is full of thought.

You write music for people who are not afraid to think, and you write music for people who, you know enjoy, you know ard and, you know, whatever, Right? Like all these you know, so like, it, it's, it's music that is, we were talking yesterday about it's music that hits different people at different levels, right?

So you guys have never been shy, you know, like about your faith and, and that kind of thing. But your music has never shut anybody away. , you know, it's, it, it hits people who like, are not [01:07:00] religious at all on certain levels. And then it hits people who are religious on other levels that mean different things and mean more things to them.

How do you, how do you, or is it just a natural thing, just balancing all that? Do you ever have to like check yourself and go, you know, this is, this is speaking to a certain set of people, but not a certain set of people. Maybe I need to adapt something or, you know, how do you walk that line? Really? Yeah. I feel like a good story is always welcome.

I don't care where the, where you're coming from. If you got a good story that's honest, I'm listening, you know, like movie, book campfire, whatever it is. I think that's always been the goal for the songs is just to tell the truth. And I had, I got a chance to meet Bono years ago. And, and he gave, he, he, he was in this room of songwriters and he said God doesn't need a lawyer.

Your job is to [01:08:00] be honest. Ah, And that advice stuck with me where I think you see, you see honesty and, and I think it, it, it matters a lot, you know, a lot. That's the beautiful thing about kids is they see through all the, the pretense, you know, And I think that's what a listener is at, at the best is where these kids just listening for the truth, you know, listening for a good story.

And so when I write a song, I try and embody that child and just write from that honest place, you know, and, and try and forget about all the, the politics and the war in the other battles inside my head, you know? I love that you've taken it with you even in your solo stuff. Like your love is strong from the spring ep, like you've taken it with you even there.

And even in fiction family, like the, the writing style or real Sean, Jon, whatever you wanna call it. The , the we have you took that with you every step. It's not just been in the Switchfoot stuff. So I gotta tie that back into, since you did a bono name [01:09:00] drop and since we talked about what was on Tim's wall what poster was on your wall?

You, I know your musical influences. I know you had YouTube, you know, police, all that. You had a solid name drop with Keith Green in there. So the Christian community, we go, Yay. Good call on the Keith Green. What what poster you have, What poster do you have on your wall, Jon? So I, I had so many posters.

My room, take one or two. I turned it . Yeah. I turned it into a, into my studio. I threw my bed like up in the, on the wall and like propped it into the closet. And, and There was a drum set and just padding up on all the walls and then any part of the wall that wasn't covered with, with padding, like egg crate kinda stuff.

Had a poster. Had a poster. So I mean, I had everybody and, you know, from you know, wallflowers to the Sundays to Led [01:10:00] Zeppelin or you know, police, whoever. And then, but the one that my, my wife makes fun of me for her sister. Was on our record company when we were, when we first got signed to rethink her name's Sarah Mason.

Oh, yes. Shut up. Yeah, I worked in a Christian bookstore late nineties through mid 2000 or 2004 ish. So I'm very familiar with Sarah Mason. Yeah, for sure. So there you go. Yeah. And she's incredible. She truly is just amazing as a person and, and as a musician. But yeah, so I got, I got the poster. I'm like, Dude, this is going up on my wall.

Like it was in a promo thing of like, Hey, we'd love to sign you to the record. This is, these are the other acts that are involved. But yeah, so she's, she always makes money for that. So that, that's probably the, the one that, that stands out. , which which Wallflower song do you karaoke if they're like, Jon?

We're, do you do, I mean, one headlight is hard to beat. That's [01:11:00] smart play. Yeah. I gotta go, I'm gonna go old school here. I think maybe my favorite, this is hard to say, but maybe my favorite, I'll say the Switchfoot song that I end up singing to myself most often is Company car Out of all the last 25 years.

Company Car is the one that ends up stuck in my head pretty often. And it's one of the just overall like cleverest songs that I, you know, that I've ever heard and I love it so much. I, of the 10 questions I wanna ask you just about company car, I'm gonna nail it down to one. Who was Mike? Mike was, right.

So that entire song wrote itself pretty much that, I mean, honestly like three, five minutes later it was like done. So Mike was a character that rhymed with right ish. There we go. I just had this character in my head who's like, You know, big wig big league in it, and. And [01:12:00] apparently he was Mike.

So no, no hard feelings to any of the real mics out there. This, this mic is a worst person than you are just Mike in la Just the Yes, probably he might root for the Dodgers. I don't know. , that's great. Seriously, The, the, the second verse alone to that song is a work of art, and you wanna talk about the, the layers that like certain people are gonna get from even just that second verse.

It's gonna hit different depending on your background. I just, I just love it. Anyway, congratulations. My favorite project where the light shines through. I like that whole project from start to finish, but my favorite song is not on that project. It's on the Beautiful letdown. My favorite song is On Fire.

And you talked about how early in this, when we were chatting about saying a lot with a little, and there's not a whole lot of words in that little section, but it's super powerful. Yeah. So I think you've managed to transition that everywhere you go on that. So keep on going. Honor, man. Thank you.

Keep, keep on, keep on going. [01:13:00] Let me ask you this, going back to going back to Christmas in, in particular you know, a lot of the, like most iconic, and you've got a couple of these on the, on the album of the, like, classic Christmas tunes came from like depression era, World War II in particular, when times were like really tough and you know, we're coming to a spot now where, you know, just about every artist that we talk to has come.

Out of the other side of the pandemic with an album of songs that is sort of if not centered around that, that year, you know, year and a half at least heavily influenced by it. And this is who I am on the other side of it. But do you think that the songs and the art that come out of the, like pandemic era will have a chance to be revered and honored the way that the songs of the Depression or World War II were, or do things just move on too fast now?

Is it just gonna be like, these were some songs that happened and we don't really remember why? Yeah, I mean, I, I do think you bring up an interesting subject. Are we [01:14:00] moving too fast to actually experienced the present, let alone revere the past? You know, that Yeah. That's a, a wild topic. I, I do think that.

Music serves a really crucial role in our society, in any human endeavor. I feel like music is, ha has, its a unique place in the arts as as singing to, and speaking through whatever's happening at, happening at the moment. I think it does it better than say, dance or, or you know, even the visual arts.

I think that music has a strong connection with, with a sense of time because music actually requires time to move through it. You know, the end of the song, you're three and a half minutes older than you were when the song started, you know? And so I think as it pertains to tough experiences, I think music has this, this way of grounding us in the, in the present, past future.

It ties of [01:15:00] tying things together and. I, I personally think that we're in one of the golden eras of, of song, Maybe not in the top 40 side of things, but I think a lot of my favorite artists were stuck at home with nothing to do but make music. You know? And I think that in, in and out of that, those are, those are where the best songs come from when you're kind of forced to deal with yourself, forced to deal with society and, and really come to terms with things.

So who knows? I, I don't know that it'll be seen that way in, in 40, 50 years, but yeah, that, that's my take on, on where we're at. Right. What's the more significant item in your life? Your first guitar or your first surfboard? I don't have either of them. . Oh, no. But significant it, like emotionally to you? Like, not that you necessarily still have 'em, just the more important.

The guitar would be, would [01:16:00] be more important. This surfboards are unfortunately they don't last as long. The guitars, you know, structural integrity of wood is, is a whole lot better than foam and fiberglass . So, so the if the house burns down tonight to quote Switchfoot, you grab the guitar, that's the one you grab, grab the guitar.

Okay. Yeah. Well, the guitar's gonna serve you a whole lot better. And the funny thing is, I, I often will ride a piece of wood. It's this rudimentary form of a surfboard called nalia. And so I'd probably grab a wooden wooden surfboard and a wooden guitar and, That's all I need. Right? There you go. Right In the words of who is it?

Steve Martin. And that's all I need. That's and this lamp. That's okay. Yeah. And the game

remote control. Okay. Let's see. I have one more silly question and then one more serious one. Okay. Manny Moore famously covered Switchfoot in the movie Walk to Remember. And of course that was a huge exposure moment for you guys to a broader audience. And she [01:17:00] also, among other things, played Rapunzel in the Disney movie, Tangled.

What other Disney, Prince, Princess or villain would you want to hear cover a song and bonus points? If you can name the song you'd want to hear him sing. Wow. This is, I'm gonna go on record saying it might be the hardest question I've ever asked, cause I've never actually thought about it. We came to make you think you're not getting off easy.

Jon's, we gave you some softballs at the beginning with the baseball stuff. Now we're bringing Peterik Disney. We brought in Trevor Hoffman to bring the hater and it can't be like just any cartoon. It's gotta be Disney affiliated. Yeah. You know, like you know, Yes. Like a Rapunzel level character. Okay.

What if okay. I'd have Dwayne the Rock Jonson. From Moana. from Moana, I dunno, whatever. Just whatever he feels. Pick a song's great. He actually just put a, he recorded something this week. It's did. Oh, it's super hot. He was saying, What the [01:18:00] heck, That's not fair. Anyway, whatever. You, you shouldn't be that buff and talented and cool.

And also be able to sing that . Yeah. Just not fair. People said the same thing about you, Don. I know. So my, my, my time in, in professional wrestling was short-lived , although I might have the hair for it now. Sure. We haven't gotten to talk a lot in our, in our time about Charlie Peacock. Tell us a little bit about Charlie and his influence on like the early era of Switchfoot.

Yeah. Charlie was a father figure for me. He signed us, he came out to San Diego. This is, these are the days when you would record things on tape. In, in you know, back in the 19 hundreds. Yeah. and so Southwest, he flew Southwest, pretty sure Southwest and whoever he flew, they lost his bags on the way back to Nashville.

So the, the session that we recorded with him [01:19:00] was lost forever as well. And Oh, I'm, from my perspective, I'm pretty sure that's why we got signed . Cause he, he was, you know, we left a strong impression, but he had, he couldn't remember that we weren't that talented, you know, like we weren't that good of a band with Indian.

The Jones goes on his next mission. Is he gonna find that bag with those tapes? , maybe. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So it's, it's one of those things where yeah, we were so young and we had a lot of, I think, really good ideas. And I felt like he was an incredible. Bridge to help us get to where those ideas sounded like good ideas because that's a different skill set than having a good idea.

And, and he helped us so much in figuring out how to bring these, these ideas to birth, you know, and, and cuz I think there's, there's such a different thing to have a good idea versus having an idea that people can hear [01:20:00] on an album and, and recognize it for what it is. That's great. I know you guys just wrapped an amazing tour with Collective Soul.

Tell us quickly about like, just how awesome it, it seemed like you guys were just having an absolute blast. Tell us about that and I think we got one more question that we ask everybody. We're gonna get to you and then we'll, and then we'll, you know, let you go live your awesome San Diego Life.

Okay. Yeah, We, we had such a fun time with the Collective Soul Boys. Yeah, they, they, my favorite moment. Of the tour. There were a lot of them, but Ed and the crew, they gave me a double necked ukulele. Ah. And so that, that became I'd bring it out every night and play a couple songs on it. And that's good.

So that, that will be my, my way to remember my time with Collective. So its so much fun. They're, they're like bar Alto? Is that like two? No, it's, it's like one of 'em is a, is is has double [01:21:00] strings. Kind like a man. Yeah. . And then the other one is normal. It's, it's the most ridiculous thing you've ever seen, and that's why I love it,

That's great. That's awesome. Well, I've been fortunate to see you a few times. I saw you with Lifehouse in Nashville in 2017. I saw you with Reliant Kay at the Ryman and you came out and did deathbed, which is amazing. Thank you for that. The so with with the like, Hey guys, But so there's one question that we ask everybody.

You're on tour either doing solo stuff or with Switchfoot. You go into a gas station. What is your gas station snack? Food of choice while you're thinking of it? I'll tell you mine. I get a Three Musketeers bar. When I was growing up, my mom would say, You could have any candy bar you want. And it's the most ounces.

So I get a Three Musketeers bar. What does Jon Foreman get? And will you sing your answer? Oh, man, you don't have to sing it, but you, we at least have to get an answer. If you sing it, you get bonus points. It's gonna be so healthy. He's gonna say something so healthy. So I'm an impulse guy, and so it's gonna change.[01:22:00]

But if I need to stay awake, Sunflower seeds. Okay. In the shell. That's the exact same answer somebody gave to stay awake yesterday. Sun said sunflower seeds. Yeah, that's nuts because it basically means you're, You have to work for it. Uhhuh. Yeah. You know better than coffee. I'm telling you. Sunflower seeds can't be falling asleep with all these shells in your mouth.

I really wanted, Yeah, that's right. I really wanted you to say a bag of yas and sing it. But you didn't. Will you sing a ? Will you sing a bag of yams for us? No. I don't know. I don't know what that means. I don't either. But those syllables fit perfectly. I just wanted to hear you say those sys. I wanna hear you say those sylla.

Cause you have the best. Yeah, around. And yams was as close I could. So I love it. I'm honored. I do say yeah, a lot. It's wonderful. It is. On record, maybe more than I should, but I, I love the way I, I [01:23:00] mean, it sounds good. Yeah. It feels it's a great word. Yeah. If, if you say yams on your next one, I get a songwriting credit

It's a deal, man. Dude, I'll try and sneak the AM in there ever so subtly. That's right. Yeah. I'll be listening. It could happen on the next Christmas record. Yams could easily get worked into the next, next Christmas record. So, yeah. Well, yams, I mean, that is a Christmas. It's a Christmas treat food really, you know, yams and sweet potatoes.

The next time you're in the studio and you're about to say the word, yeah, you're gonna think of yams and you're gonna hate me forever or maybe love me. So this is pump up the yams. That's it. Got the yams. Thanks Jon. You don't know, we we've geeked about this, like wanting to do this for a long time.

We're fortunate that we get to inter interview people that we can't believe we are talking to. And you have shaped our youth and college years more than you will ever know. Like you are. Keep doing what you're doing. It matters. So you're important. Thank you. Well, wonderful talking to you both.

Thank you for your time. It's been fun. Absolutely. Thank you for time. Thanks. We'll see you. All right. [01:24:00] Talk to, to Feast. This is the Great Song Podcast. And that was Jon Foreman of Switchfoot on the Great Song Podcast with your boys, Robin J.P. So cool. Can't believe I feel cooler. Just having talked to Jon Foreman you'll just go check out, This is our Christmas tour.

Yeah, let's go do it. Go do it. Go go to the Switchfoot website, get your vinyl package, get your concert tickets. Go, go get the Christmas album. We got a lot of fans in East Tennessee. They'll be out there November 26th kicking it off. Absolutely. So yes, go check it out. Big, big, big thanks to Jon Foreman for joining us today.

Seriously. A, a real treat to get to talk to him. So we will continue on with season 10 next week with another great song. Until then, I'm Rob. I am J.P. Go listen to some music.